For some consumers, it is advantageous to purchase the right to connect to an Internet service provider in prepaid transactions, such as buying authorizing discs or cards at retail establishments, which contain authorization codes that enable access for a limited period of time. Consumers may also desire to purchase other prepaid services on the Internet. Such purchases enable Internet use by those consumers who prefer not to commit to an extended subscription, or lack the credit needed by most providers.
While effective, prepaid Internet systems have certain disadvantages. Each purchase normally has an assigned value of minutes of connect time. In existing prepaid Internet service systems, database records that define access codes for the system have a “number of local minutes” value and a “number of toll-free minutes” value. The toll-free value is hard-coded in the system to be calculated at a selected fraction (⅓, for example) of the local value, so that the available time for an access code would be used up 3 times faster when a user was connected to the provider's nationwide toll-free access line, to account for the added expense of the provider bearing the long distance charge.
However, the fixed ratio makes existing systems inflexible, since available minutes defined by all access codes in the system are calculated only at that ratio and cannot be calculated at any other ratio. This is disadvantageous, because it does not allow the provider to adjust the ratio to accommodate changing telecommunications costs and competitive market forces. Furthermore, pricing by the minute does not provide flexibility needed for other transactions having other cost structures, such as high-bandwidth video streaming. In addition, existing systems do not readily, or easily, allow a user to add credits to an existing account, but may require new accounts to be established for each block of connect time purchased.
The present invention overcomes the limitations of the prior art by providing a method of accounting for online Internet usage credit. The method includes establishing an account identifier in a database for a selected user. A number of credit value block records are associated in the database with the account identifier. Each credit value block has a stored credit value amount, and at least one second stored property indicator. In response to a measured amount of consumption of services by the user, at least one of the credit value blocks is debited by a debit amount based on the measured amount and the second stored property indicator. The stored property indicator may be a rate multiplier, or other factor indicating a different cost mode of online service connection or usage.